The Steve Dangle Podcast - Space Islands | December 18, 2023

Episode Date: December 18, 2023

On this episode of The Steve Dangle Podcast, the Ottawa Senators fire D.J Smith (00:00), come down to Kingston for SDP night with the Frontenacs! https://kingstonfrontenacs.com/ (03:00), the Leafs defeat Kyle Dubas (05:00), Max Domi is the third line C (28:00), who wins the World Juniors Championships? (52:00), our Pre-Smith firing conversation (57:00), Marc Andre-Fluery won't start in Pittsburgh (1:08:00), and Seeing Owls ON Long Island (1:19:00). Visit this episode's sponsors: https://kingstonfrontenacs.com/ For all the odds and to learn more visit https://betmgm.com/DANGLE Any opinion expressed is not advice, a promise or suggestion that increases the chance of winning. Gambling can be addictive, please play responsibly. To learn more, visit: https://igamingontario.ca/en/player/responsible-gambling Or if you have concerns about a gambling problem, call ConnexOntario 1-866-531-2600. Must be 19+ or older to play. Follow us on Twitter: @Steve_Dangle, @AdamWylde, & @JesseBlake Follow us on Instagram: @SteveDangle, @AdamWylde, & @Jesse.Blake For general inquiries email: [e-mail] Reach out to https://www.sdpn.ca/sales to connect with our sales team and discuss the opportunity to integrate your brand within our content! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two in five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire

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Or go with the flow and choose Ginseng Delight. Our new double espresso with ginseng extract. Whatever lies ahead, don't change your morning. Let your morning change you. Discover Coffee Plus on Nespresso.com. It's been a long-running joke since Thomas Vanek was traded from the Buffalo Sabres to New York Islanders, I think. New York Islanders at the trade deadline, or just before it, years and years ago, almost

a decade ago, that breaking news always happens right after the SDP is done recording. We have walked downstairs, we were having a mini little Christmas party put together by our sales rep, Christina, and we just found out that DJ Smith was fired as the senator's head coach, and we went into a whole discussion about will he coach in 2024. four yep we and i i gave my theories i think jay mckee is going to eventually be the sins head coach and you know what i think i might end up being right here because in the segment that we discussed i said i think they're waiting on their guy to become available i don't think jacques martin is their guy he's their coach right now well here's what's funny though he was brought

on to be i think a coaching consultant yep that's exactly the title and there was no way he would ever be the head coach that's not what they brought him on for well wasn't dj smith then the coaching consultant because he basically just trained his replacement so he was consulting jacques martin on how to coach the ottawa senators yep also also interesting and you brought this up downstairs is dj smith ran practice this morning yeah and he wanted to keep it light and fun and hey come on boys it's almost christmas like dude it is december 18th yeah that is ruthless yeah the question that i'm you're gonna hear adam ask during the show was will dj smith be the coach of the ottawa senators in 2024 and i think it was just so close to christmas and there was enough

there where it's like you just hold for it for a couple weeks until as you said your man becomes available and your answer to that question was it was yes he will be the coach come 2024 so it's a curious decision that they make this decision at this time and along with um jock martin going to the head coaching uh slot daniel alfredson is now the assistant head coach on the bench which is i think fascinating yeah i mean far far cry from what it was eh oh yeah he wouldn't even be part of the organization now he's on the bench yeah and also oh go ahead we should have read more into it when he was on the bench for a game in Sweden yes

he was on the bench for but you can forgive us for not because he's just a he's a Swedish guy it's no I know special about that but it was it was funny they were up for nothing and you know I like nudge drew I'm like holy smokes is Alfredson on the bench thing is working out and then they blew a four nothing

lead and ended up winning it in overtime it was a little bit of a trial run and also Davis pain is also relieved of his duties in the with along with dj smith so that's where the slot for alfredson comes from i see so davis pain and dj smith well fired today and perhaps for senators fans the pain is over oh now let's start the show what a way to start the davis Hey, we're going to take over the Kingston Frontenac

We bought the team, it's ours now And then we're going to take over Peterborough And Oshawa, and Michigan And then we're going to take back the White House Yeah! Hey, Kingston Frontenacs and SDP. There's a Steve Dangle podcast night, January 21st against

Saginaw. Not only will VIP members, by the way, I think the VIP is sold out. It is. Not only will VIP members be able to skate on the ice with us beforehand, but if you just buy the non-VIP one, the other bundle, you'll be able to see the show live and also see the game. And

the great thing about it is for $50, you're also getting the game, you're getting a meal from the Merchant's App House, which, look up their menu, delicious. And also, we're going to hang with you and we're going to do a podcast night. We only had 75 VIP bundle tickets because there's only so many people that can fit on an ice

rink at once. And one of those people is Barak the Bear. Thank you. So that's why they sold out very quickly. And for the standard bundle, there's only 105 of those and they are going very fast. So if you want the tickets to the event

and the game, you better act now. Act now. Look at this deal. Look at how good this deal is, guys. Do you see it? I'm trying to hug the deal. It's so good. Oh, my hand.

Whoa. Is anyone? Oh, this is wow. Wow. All right. Hey, can we get out of the world? Yeah. Wow.

That's good. Let's get it. You can't handle the four box. I can't. Wow. Jesse, stop letting him do that. I'm not doing anything. I'm a grown up.

I'm not in charge of the four box. Hey, Leafs have a very dominant winning streak. Kyle Dubas in his return to Toronto. Holy. Now, it should be noted that Dubas refused to make himself available to the media. Although, honestly, you usually don't get a GM when they roll through town. I didn't think it was that big of a deal. The expectations on that are ridiculous.

You expect a GM, a visiting GM, just to speak with the media and hold a press conference? Like, no, that doesn't happen. I'm not upset about it. What do you think this is? A Marlies playoff game? sorry that's a deep cut i don't think anybody i don't understand no one knows what i'm talking about the two guys next to you don't know when damien cox got all mad that he couldn't well so he got mad at two things he couldn't go in the marley's dressing room which they never allow

during a i think it was a 2016 marley's playoff game and yeah if he had been to any other other games he would know that was their policy but he didn't um and uh he wanted to interview kyle dubas at intermission and they were like the general manager no and he got very upset about that as well really yeah i thought that was like a well-known thing really yes okay yes yes yes 2016 that was a great year um okay all right now uh so yeah thank you for that to appreciate that you're welcome uh i don't know for anybody who's expecting dubas to get interviewed of course he's not going to get interviewed here um i think uh the last like cj did a really good retrospective of him and and really because we just don't know right that press conference when you go back go

back and watch that press conference if you got 20 minutes um it's still available online it's the goofiest weirdest press conference i've ever seen you could write a short book on that press conference alone 100% lead up to it and the fallout from it where he supposedly lost lost his job i know a great writer who should be working on another leafs book and maybe you should write a book on the dubious era what of julian mckenzie though no steve glenn should write a book on the dubious era of toronto well someone should if you did like interviews if you get like staff and dubious himself maybe for a little sit down i don't know someone should someone should i may know things that you don't know call it not again kyle dubious's tenure in toronto

no you you gotta waste it it's gotta be an era wasted you gotta call it like the core four or something or game seven meltdown i don't know no more no no stop no all right kyle do let's just get into this uh kyle dubas actually by the way people who are saying he didn't speak he did speak he spoke in pittsburgh on thursday reaffirming that mike sullivan yeah uh would be the head coach and here's the funny part about mike sullivan that i learned this weekend from i'm christopher johnson uh mike sullivan signed a three-year extension last year that doesn't kick until next year dude that's that's terrible and so he has to be the guy helping the team going forward because the rumored money is over five million a year so when dubas got this job

i talked about i'm like well good for him he's got more power and everything he's president and then named himself gm lol um that's great and everything but he's taking on one of the hardest jobs in the nhl uh which is like the penguins are one of those weird teams where yeah they could contend it's still possible but once this year or the next year passes there will be pain there will be pain they don't have prospects they don't have picks they have a bunch of ancient men by professional athlete standards right who are still performing by the way who are still performing but should be noted like father time catches up with everybody uh-huh uh look at ovi at the beginning of this season yep and he's still who knows maybe he's got a few more roundhouse punches he can

throw at father time but yeah father time's kicking his ass right now it's interesting seeing seeing this game it was interesting watching this game because for me um there were some hallmark kyle dubas players uh that were brought into this team that play like the guys that used to frustrate me last year and i'm a i'm a dubious fan but i've really liked the the turn the leafs have taken and having a little bit more bite um the leafs from top to tail in this game physically dominated the pittsburgh penguins they dominated they're not they dominated them i have a hard time believing in that team man so it starts off with the matt nye's goal and then the matt nye's fight sticking up for domi and he said he blacked out doesn't

remember a thing about it dude whatever they gave uh matthew nize while he was out sick worked austin matthews did not play because he's been sick and this flu has been running through the team dj brody nize domi marner looked good robertson mixed in there got an assist set up marner beautifully after the domi set up gross uh and and here's here's the one that i this is what i want to talk about with with the pittsburgh penguins because bobby mcmahon got his first goal which is that which wasn't called back this time because i think his first goal was actually called back last year against detroit but the thing about the bobby mcmahon goal and penguins fans you i was penguins fans of my dm going carve him ryan graves had the opportunity to grab

three different toronto maple leafs on that play this is not his first egregious play of the game by the way but he had the chance to get three guys this is a seven-year contract seven-year contracts six year contract still bad still bad that contract sucks dude and he chose instead of tying up any of those three guys he chose to watch the buck and bobby mcmahon bobby mcmahon fourth line sometimes right winger bobby mcmahon is wide open and no offense to bobby mcmahon but bobby mcmahon is not on a six-year deal that pays him over four million bucks a year well and and here's the thing about ryan graves yes ryan graves to me is exactly the embodiment of the type of defenseman and depth forwards

that Dubas brought into Toronto. And there was some benefits to that, right? Not very physical, probably not going to tie up their guys, can kind of be mobile, and can move the puck. Generally, decent underlying numbers. Generally decent underlying numbers,

which Ryan Graves had. People were so pissed at me when I said it was a shitty signing on July 1st. I still think it was. Dude, six years. I don't know, man. Well, the reason they went to six years is there was somebody else who was willing

to pay more money year over year. All right, get someone else. Yeah, that's what I would have said too. But the one thing that drove me nuts about Kyle Dubas' Toronto teams was that none of the defensemen would ever move anybody in front of the net. And if what we've seen,

and it's happened over the course of a few weeks, I think the Boston, the first Boston game was a huge turning point for the Toronto Maple Leafs this year because Lilligren went down and nobody did anything. Dude, that ass-kicking was like chicken soup for the Leafs. That was a change, right?

It's like a total turning point of their season. The next game was. And I see guys like this, and I know Noel Chari's out and that sort of thing, so he's a physical guy. So what? It's the league. That guy specifically for me really stood out as, what are you adding here?

What are you big for? Are you saying he's Dubas' new Justin Holl? I think he probably was signed to be. I think as ownership, I think sometimes you get caught up in new guy syndrome or whatever. And you're like, this is the new guy, and we're going to let him do whatever the new guy needs to do. He came here because he didn't have any power in Toronto, and we're going to give him all the power. And I'm going to offer this player a six-year contract. Okay, what does he play?

Defense. Got it. Okay. okay i'm gonna move heaven and earth to get this wrong side of 30 defender who can't really defend um sorry you're gonna move heaven and earth to do that yeah you're gonna give up like draft capital and stuff yeah how much money is it gonna cost us every year uh like uh seven and a half million ten million oh okay great ten million and um sorry so why'd you need the first one if this is a 10 million dollar defenseman like if this is worth our investment you don't need to

like the whole the whole problem with the Leafs is every year the season begins and we're like so who the hell's the third line center but the reason you can stomach that problem is because your top two are stupid your top two are ridiculous it's Matthews Tavares the Penguins same shit who's their third line defenseman heading into most seasons since 2006 oh you said defenseman sorry i thought you were center oh no no sorry the the penguins who's their uh third line center like who gives a shit because it's malkin and crosby and then you figure out the rest later it's been that way for over a decade all probably was when he was playing they're the best one they've had and then sutter and uh they had benino for a long time and they

were able to cycle guys in cycle them out um like sorry the the point i was making at the beginning there so dubas gets the power yes but it's so difficult for him to do anything because of roster age and construction then on top of that his coach has like the least fireable contract maybe in nhl history outside of babs outside of babs who dubas did fire but like who thought it was a good idea pretty sure it was the season after they missed the playoffs or didn't they definitely didn't make it out of the first round who thought it was a good idea to give mike sullivan a three-year contract extension two years ahead of time heck stallenberg yeah dude that's a disaster they left a mess yeah they really did some things to the organization

during their like short tenure there terrible and so dubas comes in and he gets more power to do what and he locks himself in more because he got he brings in this graves deal and he brings in eric carlson and there's nothing wrong with those players on their own but like you already have so many long-term contracts you could add justin hall dude like penguins fans got really mad at us on Instagram when we had that video where we were talking about the idea of Crosby... Playing anywhere else. And I get it, emotional response.

Yeah, I get the emotional response, but also, are you sure? Because your other option... Like, okay, I think the Penguins should go for it. I don't think they should pull the chute. I think trade your remaining draft capital and screw it, go for it. Do not trade any picks in the future.

Don't you dare. And then just understand, if you commit to this group now you are committing to bottoming out none of this rebuild on the fly shit you are bottoming out you are going to be dog shit you're going to be 2003 at least two or three years 2003 penguins oh yeah you are going to be terrible yeah and that's okay that's if you i mean if you probably would be shit for a couple years if you get a fifth crosby cup fifth or no sorry fourth still my bad right my bad still great yeah i'll take four cups please i'll take that but like dubas's job is hard i also but again so he but he made some bets here too

there's no it's funny that he's he has the same problem in pittsburgh that he had in toronto he has no margin of error yes but he can't make a bad signing but he puts himself in that position i agree i also don't know and i i i want to i'll shift shift it when when we look at the way kyle dubas looks at a team we have to remember that this is a mostly hextall burke team right but there's been some pretty major additions that dubas has made or doubled down on tristan jari don't think he deserves a lot of hate for the game i don't think they played well in friend of him he was fine he was fine he was fine he got pulled but he was fine nedeljkovic why not take a flyer on the guy didn't work out in detroit shot saw some flashes in carolina why not try he's actually

i think that we forget sometimes how close the leafs came to absolute ruin at the at the goaltender position jack jack campbell was this close to a five-year 25 million dollar deal this close i think the least wanted him at four uh remember they off they offered him supposedly the wedge that got drove between campbell and the leafs was the leafs offered him it was like less than three million yeah and his agent wanted seven at the time and his agent just cut off all talks and uh that was it well no it's worked out for jack he's still getting the bag yeah i guess it's pulled uh a last game or game before who's that campbell yeah and down bakersfield again yeah he had a rough a rough outing it wasn't great i love the person yeah i i had my boisterous

little thing when he got his shutout it's back on the other side it's rough not work yeah so so then so then we look at we look at the way um the way that the the penguins have played this year which has not been good they've been kind of flat they were feeling themselves a little bit because they'd come off of a a win against arizona a playoff team and then a shootout dramatic win in montreal right so feeling themselves a little bit two good wins the power play was back like that oh my god that was the thing for them you're welcome yeah after we talked about it they they went out and they won those two games and they were good victories for them because everything looked to be going in the right direction and they and they're rolling into toronto a team that

usually when there's a big regular season game against a former you know somebody who's now former ally who's now an enemy right and listen i like kyle dubas but he's not a leaf anymore so fuck him uh when you play in the leagues fuck him right like that's how it should be right yeah and then you go right back to hey you're cool yeah i still like kyle dubas i'm but i'm i'm trying to figure out like you can you can blame some of the losses on the power play we went through some of the underlying numbers not a bad team in pretty much every statistical category except for the the power play but when you have kyle dubas rolling into toronto it's the dad's trip yeah for the pittsburgh last game of the dad strip too that's that's how you leave the taste in their

mouth and you yeah you come out and lay an egg like that that's a team problem that's a coach problem and i think most importantly it's a roster construction problem i mean if it was any other coach in the nhl would be like has the team quit on the coach yeah or something but you literally can't fire this person it's not kyle dubas is i i wonder how much kyle dubas actually controls this team because like you said with the coach and and mike sullivan extension the guy who came out and talked to the press conference in august i want to say or july the dm uh what i'm looking for the gm no that's me you mean do this right the guy who came out in august or july of 2022 when they handed out the extension to mike sullivan was john henry who is the guy who's in charge of

fenway sports group it wasn't like they had the the gm and obviously like ron hextel and berkey when they're there they're obviously doing the stuff there but like henry who's a boston guy who who made his name with the red socks gave this extension to massachusetts born mike sullivan oh boy it's not like dubas has any control over who's managing the roster i don't think he has to say and if the guy who's in a top on top of dubis is the one who's hiring the and making the head coaching decision how much say does dubis really have over the roster itself and sullivan's been there since 2016 15 yeah oh you know what 15 16 yeah coach with johnson was fired in in the fall it was it was really late december november december yeah yeah 15 i i i just worry about dubis

in the free it seems like he's in a second situation where he does not have the autonomy to make decisions that he wants to make i have a question okay okay i have a question all right how does a guy making seven million dollars a year in a management role which is what dubas makes not have authority i would take seven million dollars for somebody to tell me what to do every oh no and i mean this is what we've talked about for years and years and years on this show ownership has to let the people that they hire make decisions or you're just lighting money on fire so the leafs uh are probably still lighting on money on fire because they're you know you know Shanahan's just doing his little thing.

Fenway Sports Group decided we'll light more money on fire, actually, and we'll give Dubas top pair defenseman money every year to do whatever we fucking tell them to do. Hi, so you can't trade any of our best players. They're all on no moves, and they're old. Also, you can't draft anyone. Also, there's no one coming. also you can't fire the coach also there's no gm so you should probably make yourself the gm

yeah so i want to say that dude attends games you know what i mean yeah like what's he allowed to do yep that's i he got jansen harkins off waivers like what the what's he allowed to do i wonder if dubas goes in there with a hundred percent autonomy and is told to reconstruct this roster in any way you want or go for it or do whatever if he even makes the eric carlson trade or if he's why i think he wanted eric carlson or i think he did or if he walks into the room and crosby and management and everybody says no we have to win you have to do things to win and his best idea is eric carlson i wonder if he stands pat and he says i'm not gonna go do that if i don't talk to everybody and they tell me i have to win so you saw carlson burns and thought older carlson older

letang is gonna do well you thought that was gonna be a great idea all right and i let's see so here's the thing i'm looking at fenway sports group and outside of liverpool who they've had a crazy run with they own liverpool fc they own the socks red socks and they own penguins and some other stuff as well they're not had like the the red socks have been weird they've been John Henry was there through the World Series, was he not? He was, but recently. I'm talking about last couple of years. Not had a great run.

Okay. Right? I believe they won the World Series in 2018. No, Jesse, you got to remember. 2018 is five fucking years ago, man. That's a Bostonian sports drought. All right. Yeah, their championship every year.

The Bruins are in crisis. I think what happened was... The Mookie Betts trade was an awful, awful move. I think what happened was... I'll give you that. I think the Sox haven't been great. I think that Fenway Sports Group didn't know a whole heck of a lot about hockey. They hired some people with a lot of experience in hockey who were outdated.

And now Dubas is in. He's a forward-thinking guy, and he's going to have to clean up this mess. And the thing is, now they want to go for it. So you've got a mess to clean up, and you've got a ticking clock with Crosby and Malkin. I think if you look at it, here's what Mike Sullivan said. We just didn't play very well. I'll certainly dissect it. I'm not sure how to respond.

It's a humbling experience. It's disappointing. we're all in this together we've got to figure it out josh yohi from the athletic said it was an appalling display of hockey throughout the evening there's no excuse for it i also want to bring this up this is a crazy stat all right this is how bad the penguins defense was on saturday night i don't know if the leaves were that good or if the pings were that bad mike kelly no the leaves were cooking penguins penguins allowed 13 odd man rushes and 11 rush chances it felt like it they have not allowed double digit rush chances in their first 17 games.

And they've allowed 10 or more in five of the last 12, the penguins. Oh, and the Leafs obviously cook on the rush. They're great on the rush. Uh, especially, uh,

Maximus Domi. Holy. Yeah. And so, so the reason I want to, I wanted to put a focus on Pittsburgh is because I feel like you've got a, a couple of guys in there that, that Dubas would like,

and then you've got hextall and burke's mess and it's not combining for a very good team i i know he likes eric carlson i know he likes ryan graves i get it i but those guys don't fit where this roster needed to go to make up for the mess that that burkey and hextall left behind i don't give a shit take it down take another job if you're so worried about the job the last guys did don't take this job well i'm not expecting no i'm not expecting sympathy but he clearly he's going to have to change the way he looks at nhl teams if they're going to win in the crosby era if he doesn't care if he ultimately is like i'm going to let this team suck and i'm going to go to management next year and go do you guys want to continue sucking or do you want and

and get try to get crosby a cup or can you let me offload these assets and start again i would i honestly think that that's if i was in that position that's what i would do because i think that's the best way to move forward for long-term success agreed if he's thinking about his tenure as president of the pittsburgh penguins and he wants to hoist a cup there one day his first stanley cup that's probably the best route forward and by he's this is year one of his contract if he wants to be good again challenging for the playoffs by year four this next summer would be the summer to do it if this keeps up remember you have to say if this keeps up it's hockey right things And Crosby is absolutely cooking, too.

Yeah. Oh, man. Well, you could keep Sid and fire everyone else in at the same time. I have such a hard time betting against this team. Me, too. Man, aren't we right back to discussing the Dubas Leafs? Like, oh, but they're there. But they're there.

They've got to add a piece here, and they'll be fine. You were seeing this year that they weren't there. Oh, I know. I don't want to take too much from one game. You get demolished by the Leafs on a Saturday night. It's 7-0. Everything you outlined is obviously egregious and should not happen. But it's also one game.

Are they sick as well? Like, I'm not asking that to be a kick. Right. And they could go forward. And if they steady the power play and base their all the numbers they've had so far this season, they could be just the bottom of the end playoff team and have a shot. Because once you get in, who knows what happens. But it's about climbing back in.

And if they've righted the ship with the power play based on the two games where they had a decent power play, there's some optimism there for the penguins and i don't want to jump on them for one game but it was the ultimate bad i'm jumping on them for their season these clips has been dog shit these clips are going to go absolutely bonkers when the penguins knock the i know i can't wait i hope they do but i'm just saying it's it's garbage now on the leaf side on the leaf side there was a big um there was there was a big article posted by jonas siegel of the athletic uh and and uh people were upset because here's the thing um Jonas's contention and this is his position is that the Leafs cannot move forward with Max Domi as a center and that that there's been like a masking

tape approach to Max now Max Domi's on pace for like 45 points he's the top scoring player outside of the top four uh he's outside of the top five because include Riley include Riley in the core top scoring Leaf who's not on the top unit power play yeah that's pretty good for three million bucks yeah fans love him he has brought a you know listen there's gonna be defensive miscues with max domey but at three million dollars yeah this guy along with robertson uh and and sometimes not when they were able to link up or whoever else he's played with croak yarn croak has been good most of this by the way you pointed out before the show with a busted finger jesse pointed that out but yeah he's been walking in the air i thought it was a finger that's no i was i have

to agree with we do look alike it's true i understand why it's very good point adam i have i can understand why don't don't interrupt jesse when he's talking uh jonas feels that way because that's not the way jonas looks at it right but leaf fans are seeing a guy who a plays his balls off b sets up some really great plays had a great goal on saturday night too like a spectacular goal and when he scores he fucking roars man that guy is so excited to score a goal as a leaf yeah because he's only got two yeah but so what yeah i know i know what he's setting other people up i know he's a playmaker i know and so you know steve you have said previously that you don't think that the leafs will go into the playoffs with him as the

third line center to be honest i've disagreed with you because i still think this guy who played with Dallas last year into the third round had a spectacular playoffs as the third line center can do it and I wonder at what point like do you and Jonas get your shit together I know Domi when you get your head out of your ass Domi's making a believer out of me is he yes uh slowly now Jonas doubled down this morning which I think is hilarious I people were eating him alive on Twitter all weekend and he was like nope it's what I think because Jonas is less swayed by small sample size than i am but like which you know all the power to them and everything but that line when i saw it assembled i'm like that is a just a big old bunch of fun

regular season line and here they are cooking in december i'm curious to see how it goes going forward when things tighten up but the leafs are the team tightening up except for columbus which is so clearly an outlier that game um they've been real stingy defensively responsible with major defensive core pieces gone oh yeah like no geo no klingberg with his warts or whatever benoit was practicing with morgan riley today like this is uh it's not a team that is anywhere near ideal at the moment and they're really tightening up uh their forwards are getting back 10 1 and 4 in their last 15 games you know he's making robertson look real good he's making yarn croak look like a friggin offensive dynamo it's great

Oh, my God. He's in his 30s. His first 20-goal season was last year. And he, I tell you what, what a parting gift from Kyle Dubas. Great signing. And did we talk about Yarncroke Bertuzzi and the similarity between them? No. I sort of had an epiphany a few days ago.

I think it might have been on the weekend. Like, do you remember Yarncroke at the beginning of last season when he started with the Leafs? Yeah, he was a little off. He was terrible. A little off, he was terrible. And they tried him at center. and it didn't make any sense, and I was like,

this guy stinks, get him off my team. They made a huge mistake, and around game 10 or a dozen games in, he flicked a switch and went, oh, and they put him on a line that made sense, and he's never looked back. Tyler Bertuzzi, same thing, but maybe a better comparable would be Max Domi. It's just the opposite. it yarn croak uh the more defensive minded guy they had at center it didn't work put him to the

wing he's been great domey wasn't domey on the center of david camp and matthew nice yes from day one i was like that line has a zero percent chance of working why is sheldon so hell-bent on making this a thing and hey what if what if we just put the center at center and put david camp in a spot where he's not completely drowning and they've started to kill it and as jonah siegel acknowledged since that move of domi to third line center the leafs are 10 2 and 4 like gosh they they've been really good sounds like a good problem good conundrum yeah maybe yes i and and and so uh that's uh some strong scotch tape maybe they get yeah like okay so here's here's where we were at like as we were worried about the defense in october because it looked like shit um what we

have seen since the lilligran geo clingberg who else has been hurt uh mccabe was out for a little bit yeah he was um so they've got timmons was out yeah timmons was out so so what we've seen is guys like uh simone benoit and will lagason step up and become really really good players for i'm not talking about like they're not not winning norris trophies but these guys are valuable pieces and depth and timmons is on like a crazy heater points wise even though he's still an absolute inventor in his own abs absolutely and then on the forward group you've got uh matthews nylander nice working right you've got uh tavaris nylander working with or tarvin tavaris marner excuse me working i think and and marner has really stepped it up in the last five

games you can see it a ton it's great and then you've got this third line which is to me a entertaining so and can we just talk about that for a second because entertainment is the fucking point and sometimes we forget that i can't remember a leaf's third line this entertaining since and they were probably terrible defensively to loop with cadre adam you know how many goals the leafs have in the last three games uh i don't know 20 20 that's that's great it's amazing entertainment and school scoring it works together wild and then they got a fourth line that does not hurt them no doesn't hurt them not anymore they're scoring goals yeah okay no you can't you can't have that that that that tone with the fourth line the fourth line has been very solid

the last 10 i know well yeah yes reeves actually was playing well uh or at least the fourth line with reeves with mcmahon and it's good with mcmahon and it's straight up good yeah like so people are like oh we gotta make a trade gotta make trade well i don't not anymore man i don't think we need to look for problems right now martin jones look fucking dialed stepped in and got a shutout it's crazy this is great just leave it leave it for now and the team how good did the team play in front of them outstanding the penguins i think another getting back to the penguins conversation they were diabolically easy to read for a leaf's decor that is just demolished right now lilligren gets in there and he's playing on the top pair in his first game in

a month and he's just picking off every slot pass he was great simone benoit was great at applying pressure can i say something guys about lilligren you can say a lot it was interesting that that they keith said he's ready but we're getting him back up to conditioning when have you ever heard the leafs do that they're usually like he's ready throw him right back in there it's gonna take him a few games they they wanted to make sure his conditioning was ready so they didn't throw him in and fail him a little bit and i think because the leafs have ridden the line of the salary cap they've had to now i have a theory there adam when did he say that was it before the game or after he said it last week midweek i think oh then never mind i think it

was like wednesday or i was gonna say if he said it after the game it's because it was seven nothing and he wants to make himself look smart. It was Wednesday or Thursday last week. Oh, well then damn. Damn, Sheldon. Jesse, what's up? Good job. With the coverage of the Leafs,

we're talking about the Domi situation, just to get back to that for a little. One thing that bothers me with the way the Leafs are covered on television in particular is they search for the critical side and the negative aspect when it's Leafs coverage.

And sometimes it's okay to say that the Leafs are good and they're playing well and you don't have to search on hockey night in canada you don't have to search for the storyline to cover the negative with the least and i don't i think the fans are there's a disservice to the fans with leafs coverage um because they don't usually get the the like hometown coverage of like hey the leafs are good and we can just talk about all the good stuff that's happening and this is the least broadcast and look at all the goals they're scoring and awesome matthew is a cool guy look at him it's sick it's sick kids they always have

to go and look for the angle that they can criticize the team and i don't i'm not the the way they've been playing this year that coverage has stood out to me more you know in the years past i understood it because they for 60 years the leafs have been a tire fire i get it but this year it's kind of like there's a lot of positivity and i think it's okay and good stories and it's okay to just be positive about a team and we don't always have to find an angle to be critical about it so i think a lot of the reaction to jonah siegel and the article about max domi was like okay i get like he outlined his argument very well like he's a great writer obviously so the argument was outlined very well but i think a lot of the reaction was fans saying okay but why now

why because i'm i'm very happy with this team that is doing a lot of good stuff on the ice they're having these unbelievable comebacks i love domi it's ty's son they're on the dad strip ty is there this is awesome do a chance with austin matthews dad why does the leafs coverage have to find that critical angle so i think uh to speak to the reaction i think that's where a lot of it came from because for me personally as in like a fan that's what i sat there and kind of say when i'm watching these these pre-game and post-game shows i mean as i have a little bit of insight there and again i loved everyone i worked with uh at sportsnet but like there is a lot of there's a lot of emphasis and no non-leaf fan is going to want to hear this

and every non-leaf fan is going to roll their eyes they are very concerned with giving toronto too much coverage and seeming like they're too pro-leaf what happens and i know a lot of leaf fans just went i know everyone non-leaf fan and leaf fan alike just went what it's true what because leaf fans think it's way too negative and non-leaf fans think it's still being shoved down your throat here's what i think it is from my nine years of experience there non-leaf fans i think you could show austin matthews at sick kids literally helping sick children and you're like get him the fuck off my screen yeah um because it's too much um leaf fans i i'm not sure what you want um like i guess just are you not i know what they want

well they want a local broadcast yeah but you're not gonna get that on hockey night in canada because it's the fucking national problem is that too many leaf games are national that's the problem and when they are regional on tsn t the tsn crew will go in and compliment the leafs i've yet to see that on sports odog will wear a jersey yeah but you're not it's not just talking in canada like you don't get that on a thursday or a friday or a tuesday because all of those games are they're not just aiming for the leafs audience because if it's a game if it's leaf senators it is a broadcast for both of those regions so their general leaf broadcast if it's just a local broadcast is that same broadcast they don't create a new one for leaf fans so what i think is happening is they're

trying to please everyone and in the process no one's happy yeah um so i can understand you got to pick a lane and and and commit to it i could totally understand that feeling too because you know the frank the reality is there's just so many freaking leaf fans and there's so many people in southern ontario that have potential to be leaf fans and you know 15 million people live in this province and it's like it's huge right but you know country of 40 million and 15 million are here it's a lot yeah um i completely understand that that doesn't mean that you can't point out legitimately good things and i think that's where that's where that's a failure of direction coming from the top i don't blame the producers on the ground and i frankly don't blame the on-air

people um i think that there is a there is a way that they're trying to frame this and these guys are trying to maneuver it it's very difficult it's a tricky gig so so with that said listen here just one sec get me alone for a beer i'll tell you all the things i don't like about sports net but uh i think they've got great people dude i think people know i know no one wants to hear it um because i i don't know if i don't i don't think sports and it has a very popular brand but uh i have nothing but positive things to say about all the people i work with including your least favorite on-air people and behind the including your least they're all and behind Behind the scenes, too.

Behind the scenes? Oh, my God. The stuff they do behind the scenes. Yeah, I think it's a failure of direction or a failure of clarity of direction. And that can happen, right? And I think, you know, all that to say is that, you know, I think Toronto Maple Leafs fans are seeing this team play the way Leafs fans want a team to play. You know, I think that's part of it, too. We kind of got away from that.

one of the things that happened in 20 and i can remember this far back because we were doing the podcast this far back the leafs used to draft toughness in the first round and it was so stupid because they would you'd end up with guys like and no offense to these players tyler biggs freddie goche at 23rd overall and then people are like wow he projects to be a good tough third line center no dude and hold on freddie goat in the third round i think he would have had a much better career 100 yeah and so my point in all in saying all this is that the Toronto Maple Leafs used to draft so poorly that they had to overcorrect and what they what they what they would do is they'd say well we're gonna draft all skill you can always trade for toughness

and they were right they just never did yeah and the price on toughness went up because no one had it well but also I would say that the people are like oh what about Wayne Simmons Wayne Simmons who got into a few games especially towards the end it was 900 grand and coming off of a busted kyle clifford who was not an nhl player anymore not really uh matt martin who wasn't really effective and didn't work within the system they couldn't afford him two and a half million uh i think is what he's making yeah they couldn't afford him and and so there was all that all that stuff this entire roster is tougher now there's not one single guy like michael bunting last year that you could isolate every line is going to have somebody and toronto likes that leaf fans want

a little bit of bite we hate when players like that i can tell you the thing that's rankled me as a leaf fan the most in the last decade has not been the game seven losses it's been the i don't know i didn't like them you guys are soft and how do you disagree with that i i think they thought i think the strategy was you know what we're gonna call up guys and they're gonna to score 20 to 30 goals and do you know how friggin rare that is how incredibly rare like stack the system so much with talent yeah to find some guy where you're like oh and like you didn't even know how good they were and i'm not even talking about like a conor zari like in in calgary like that's i think he's a first round pick like i'm talking about some guy gets called up from

the minors like the equivalent of bobby mcmahon tucking 20 this year that so rarely happens you know what's a lot more common is a guy comes up from the minors and beats the shit out of everyone in his path because he wants to stay in the show and they're getting those performances out of lagasin benoit mcmahon has provided that as well and you seeing toughness from players i don't want to say matt nyes wasn't tough he's always been tough and big but like do you think matt nyes was was standing up for domi if domi hadn't done the same for him and multiple other teammates what adam fuck unreal point unreal point absolutely that vancouver game like do you talk about the two most worth it instigator penalties in nhl history yes like yeah absolutely

and like damn it you know i wish i could go back and just shake my head at some of the like early podcast stuff we talked about which was like too far in the other direction but like you can't tell me that stuff doesn't bring a team closer together yeah i didn't even realize till now that or no it was domi uh it was domi defending robertson who got hit but whatever six and half a dozen domi stuck up for his teammate uh robertson got a goal that night and he was extremely fired up, even more so than he would have usually been. And Nize went after a guy

who took out his linemate's tooth, who he knows is probably fighting on his own behalf less than he usually would because of his finger. Probably, which he injured probably in a fight. Probably, right? Like, you got to think. Nize is an animal. First Gordie Howe hat trick.

Did you see the stat? In 40 years? No, no, no. Not quite. since 2015 was the 40 year old oh that was the 70 i think or something or somebody yeah doesn't who was the last leaf to have a gordie howe hat trick before matt fratton no damn it but a line mate or a teammate of matt fratton i saw the stat daniel winnick oh hey all right all right ask me the game yeah do not remember wow that's okay the win for dark years

um all that is to say the toronto maple leafs are good we can enjoy it i understand why people going in on Jonas we know Jonas he's a good guy uh totally fucking disagree with his point on Max Domi but I've been on that train um but it's that's okay I think it's sort of what it's like we don't need to look for these these faults coming out of nowhere I think it's like this is a good team on a good run let's enjoy it I think you can have a point that loses its bite if you bring it up at the wrong time Jesse yep definitely agree what's up do you think max domey will be the leafs third line center come playoffs oh that's a great question um i'm gonna say just by the nature of how things are going no no um i think there's second line

i think just based on how much of the rumblings are with bradshaw living and how much he wants to tinker i think he tinkers a little and he gets the freedom to do it somebody like um mentioned in the article actually um elias lindholm who is a ufa that's crazy would make a great third line center on the toronto that would be bonkers by the way if lindholm was playing here that'd be that'd be kind of fun and i think if they want to swing their opportunities to swing i don't know what goes out but i don't i don't get a gauge on what the mentality of the least front office is right now because there's been rumors on both sides where they don't want to give up future assets because they've done that so many times in the dubious era where they gave away all the

draft picks and and and prospect capital so they don't want to do that they definitely want to hang on to the world juniors guys but they also want to win this year this isn't a year where they can't not win so i don't really have a gauge on it i'm just gonna guess no here's here's the only thing i'll say with max domi if they heading into the playoffs heading into the trade deadline because he started the season so poorly on a line that made no sense i want to see domi on the wing just to see if he can do it the problem is who do you play him with because if you can i mean holy shit if you can add elias lindholm to the team like i want evidence that like imagine domi on the left maybe on the left it doesn't matter domi on the wing lynn home and either yarn croak

or robertson or robertson yarn croak it's a fun team might have played with lynn home when they were in calgary you do some kind of deal where you get lynn home and tan have even though i don't think you should get tan have at all but um there's a package there i'm okay with them getting tan have i just i worry about the it better not come with an extension that's your ass though you're asking i think if it does they're they're going to sign an extension it should neither of those guys should come with an extension i don't believe so lindholm i take well no all day no but what does he want eight million nine million it's too much that's a lot for yeah like i think they gotta be pure rentals and if that's the case you want to go after the both those two guys brad

but um there's some interesting things also i'd be fine with max domi either the the question is do you think yes or no but like I'd be fine with either answer Max Domi has been very good and I think he'll keep it up I think Max Domi by the way is the centerman come playoff time I think he's earned it so far this keeps up and he he keeps playing like this how do you deny the guy now do I do the Leafs go out and not get center depth no I think sure they do why wouldn't you somebody's gonna get injured well it may not even be Max Domi it might be Tavares or Matthews you're gonna need somebody who can step up get a guy who can play both there you go get get a man who could Dubois. And that Tavares to the wing

shit disappeared, eh? It's been amazing. That's gone. Steve, your point about seeing Max Domi on the wing, like, that could work. If they go get a center, Max Domi could play on the wing and he'd be very effective. I know he can do it and I know it'll work. We just haven't seen it here because he was on a terrible line. That made

no sense. And you could also go get him a winger. That'd be great. That works too. Opens up your options. Hey, what about Nick Robertson? There you go. It's nice and early. Hey, that's great. i saw some people who were talking about like wanting to trade nick robertson or whatever and i'm like guys he is just he's gonna break out it's happening people adam online i'm looking

i'm watching the conversations that people have okay what are people talking about better conversation to marner was friggin nasty there's some tantalizing shit with his game and i'm i'm telling you i feel like there's a breakout coming it's just me i just listen like there's a lot of about his game that's raw but um his work ethic and i think willingness to learn that's not a player i give up on man nope okay nope you you trade him to another team he's scoring 30 you know that right like i feel like that nope i feel like that let him figure it out here i i you can have nick robertson from my cold dead hands no way no way so let's get to the BetMGM Big Story.

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and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcfwalk.ca. change you. Discover Coffee Plus on Nespresso.com It's starting to get down to the wire on our STPN football pool. I have not lost this week.

I probably will. Steve didn't make the playoffs. That's how he didn't lose. I'm probably going to lose. But there's three weeks left in the actual NFL season. That's right. And that means playoffs. And when the playoffs roll around, do you know who you should be listening to? Drew and Stu, baby. Drew and

too why jesse because every week they come to you with the best picks that you should be placing when you're making your football bets and they're actually really really good at it yeah it's better when they're not but so it's way better when they're not drew drew had one week i think it was three weeks ago he was like really busy uh that week and he didn't have a lot of time to do a bunch of research and he went i want to say like 2 and 14 oh it was just and cam obviously comes the next episode and just rips him apart that must have been Sweden probably I think the week

leading up to Sweden yeah so when Drew is not Europe he's dialed in they're generally very good yeah I also want to say that sometimes sometimes like pick content can be super serious and a little greasy and like these guys are just two guys

it feels like you're hanging out at the bar with them they're just fun and especially for people that can't stand Drew's takes uh tune in to watch them lose there you go right and also when you're there and you discover what a great show it is you should subscribe thank you sdpn that's drew and stew on sdpn search drew and stew on your favorite podcast app whether that's apple or spotify or search it up on youtube search it on your least favorite as well ottawa has lost four straight and dropped eight of their

last 11 the difference between Mike Sullivan and DJ Smith is Mike Sullivan is locked in forever and DJ Smith is on an expiring deal remember that time the Sens had all these games in hand on everybody oh they're spending that fast DJ Smith said after the 5-4 loss to the Stars on Friday that he felt the team deserved better and he said you know wish they could have finished the job because they played well no one wants to hear that um you remember earlier this year when the Senators fans got on DJ Smith and said fire DJ and Brady Kachuk stood up for him I know Michael and lauer said he does not want more instability this year because it's been an unstable year honestly it's been an unstable decade for senators fans and i feel for them but this year in

particular this year's been bad it's like this isn't even eugene's fault anymore yeah um but this year is almost at an end does dj smith coach a game for the senators in 2024 for i'm gonna say yes and i'll tell you why okay um i don't have a name in mind but i think michael ann lauer does because i think steve steos does now some people chronically online will know that i think it was in june it was in the summer I said that the Sens are going to get Steve Stas. Yes. It took a while

but I was right. You also said the Kraken are going to get Brandon Minnell. I don't think I said that. Not Kraken. Blackhawks? Who's going to get Brandon Minnell? Leafs. Leafs? Wait, what? That was it? What? Sorry, never mind. Adam, shut up. Flyers! He went to the Flyers. Adam, where were the Sens in the playoffs

in August? Oh man, they won the Cup several times. I mean, like, I can't. August is their month, man. Listen, as long as there's no hockey, Senators fans have a chance, and I'm happy for them. I can't wait till next August.

August 2024, they're going to be like, see all the problems from last year? None of those exist anymore. Now we're going to win. It's been, and I feel for them because every year you think they're going to take a step forward. But here they are, worse than the Montreal Canadiens.

Leafs fans' cup season is right around Christmas. That's right. Right around now, this is when we're going to win the cup. Listen, I didn't say we're... And then it only gets worse from here. But at least we watch some hockey first and then make that decision. in the summer i said uh steve stales was going to join the ottawa senators

he still worked for the oilers at the time and they even said hey he still works for us and then what happened the obvious he ends up in ottawa there was a little bit of x y and z involved but that's where he ended up so the ann lauer group had a guy in mind for a long time i'm thinking they have like listen they should have fired dj smith weeks ago and they haven't yet i don't think it's just about the instability i think they have a guy in mind and he's not available i don't know who the person is but i'm willing to bet michael ann lauer is going to do something the sins haven't done for a long time and he's going to break out the wallet and he's going to go what do you want and he's going to give someone a lot of money to coach the mike

babcock that's great oh my god you know i don't think we're gonna see him again i think the name that has come up several times and this player or this coach is not allowed to coach yet is joel quinville and and like it or not and i imagine most people don't joel quinville as soon as he gets approval is going to get a big fat contract from somewhere and if he ever gets approval i don't know if he ever will to be honest i don't know either um but joel quinnville is a lot of teams i think his name was like floated in st louis discussions so that's why the st louis one's so interesting because drew bannister may not even be the coach at the end of the year and i think that's because they're trying to keep the window open uh i think there's a few guys that are that

are in that sort of area and i would say that i'm i wouldn't be shot if that's one of the names who's at the top of their list waiting on him here's the name i'll throw it out um steve brought a championship to michael einlauer and the hamilton bulldogs who was their coach former nhl former buffalo saber black and white and red buffalo saber important distinction jay mckee interesting why would he be a big wallet he wouldn't be a big spender no he wouldn't be a big wallet but he's a name that i would definitely throw out there as a potential candidate and um i mean you know what's going to add instability to your team losing high well losing but also hiring joel quenville a lot of people are going to friggin

hate that dude yeah that's a good way to lose a pr battle before it even starts yeah what are you doing i am wondering if i'm wondering if the the pro sports mantra of who cares just win takes over i because because here you here it is here it is how do i say here it is the ottawa senators are right now in points percentage 28th in the league we can all agree that the teams around them are less talented

than the Ottawa Senators right the Ottawa Senators are the most talented team probably below the Oilers in the NHL in terms of standings points percentage if you go look points percentage it's Calgary Buffalo Seattle Ottawa Columbus Anaheim

San Jose Chicago on paper I don't really understand why they're this bad they play like a mess yeah or a sloppy mess they need a they need a coach and some goaltender but they don't have it's not that they don't have talent though no they have lots of talent it's weird they're like this year's canucks where i look at them and i'm i'm like should be good right yeah like they could make the playoffs they could miss the playoffs basement no i'm surprised they're in the basement there i am there there are points percentage is worse than the Montreal Canadiens by the way that's like way worse 0.77 0.77 worse

than the Montreal Canadiens who are rebuilding and injured to bloody hell yeah not that the Sens have had the greatest injury luck either but like holy shit yeah yeah they really are one card from the whole they've lost eight of 11 games they are 3-7-0 in their last 10 god that's bad that's so bad and like corpus allo forsberg that's not the greatest tandem in the league that should be fine should be fine should be league average ish nope yeah man i uh when their guy becomes available i think they go for it also is there another name well if if they're this bad this deep into the season, I don't know.

Just let it happen. Are you sure that's good for young players? No. But you could add Macklin Celebrini to the team and away you go. Go look at the post games the last night. They just look dejected. Dejected's not good. Yeah, but guess what's coming up?

It's beginning to look up like Christmas. You get a few days off and you start to feel good. i don't know maybe that'll be a nice mental reset for them i think the sends are more bad than just like goaltending i think they have bigger issues than just their two goalies but if you look at the stats yonas corposales in 892 and anton forsberg in 11 games is an 876 dude 876 but

he's only one game below 500 is actually crazy you can't win games when your goaltenders are giving you an 876 and 892 like there are some defensive issues they have to solve they're actually scoring goals at like a decent pace and they have the players to get it all together but they would the first thing they need to solve is this goaltending issue and i don't know maybe it's a structural issue with the way they're playing i don't know about the defensive systems that dj smith is running there and if that'll help the goaltenders in any sort of situation but um the goaltending needs to be fixed first before they can talk about winning anything substantial well they just spent a big old bunch of money on it so yeah well i think their first their first

way to be successful is stop letting pierre dorian make um choices on who's going to tend the net and uh smith no no i said pierre dorian and they did the right thing and they got rid of pierre dorian oh no i meant pierre dorian okay he's the one who's been signing the bad contracts i mean really well well i you know he boy the writing was on the wall for him a hundred percent Like, he was a guy where I was like, ah, he's not allowed to, like, do his job. And then they let him do his job, and I'm like, no, stop. Mm-hmm. No, stop.

You're not very good at this. Another guy I want to talk about, obviously the Jets are surging, but Gabe Velarde has come out of injury on an absolute monster tear, nine points in 11 games for this weekend. Did I not call that when the trade happened? That's a good trade, man. I didn't think PLD would be bad, which he has been. That's been surprising.

but i i thought the jets had a great i i vietnamese lee disagree with that yeah i mean i think pld has been perfectly fine well i don't his points haven't been it's a story in winnipeg and it's not a story in la because the kings are great anyway yeah like i think it's i think it's an example of a trade working for both teams because the kings are obviously fine and the jets though are killing it and i don't know what i thought the team would be but like what a huge change in culture um that you you lose pld you lose wheeler and then these four guys come in from the king's organization i think three of them are on the roster right now three or four um and also oh yeah they have like one of the best goalies in the world weirdly it's added up to success strange

how that happens uh it's also good that you know gate velarde really was buried on a i mean he was great as a part of the kings but i think he was buried as a part of how deep they were and he wanted an opportunity he wanted to go to winnipeg and he's there and he's doing incredibly well like just such a valuable piece for them really good match did anybody call winnipeg being this good this year no not me and it's great not me i'm not surprised though that the guys they got in that deal worked out they're good players man they are i like i think the least went after velarde for years like they tried to get him for years already i follow was a guy who i really wanted the leafs to get when the kings were sellers um dude they're a good team uh the last one mark andre flurry

could be playing his last game in pittsburgh tonight here's what he said about it uh he said uh i don't want every city to be like oh this could be your last game here flurry said but that being said i know it could be so at the same time uh you know i i would i would have a regret not doing those moments as an enjoying these moments uh so i'm going to enjoy little things like that but i don't know i don't want to be thinking every day um about these emotions because it you know it kind of makes he said it kind of says something about it being soft now what i found hilarious about this okay hilarious about this is that it was announced today that coach John Hines from

the Minnesota Wild, Phillip Gustafson will be playing. Marc-Andre Fleury will not be playing in Pittsburgh. Josh Yohi in his column said, you know, you might want to get to PPG Paints Arena this week because... That's so shit. That's awful. That is absolutely

moronic. Now, if he's joking, that could be hilarious. But if he goes through and he doesn't play Marc-Andre Fleury in Pittsburgh, then John Hines, you're just the you just have you're an oh i can't even now you gotta play the the wild need to right the ship and gustafson's been playing stupid since no you put you put you put mark andre flurry in i know

it's a tough one can i just i i i looked it up um flurry was drafted the same year into club by 50 cent came out wow also get busy by sean paul and crazy in love featuring beyonce and jay-z damn there's another song at number two but i don't know if i'm allowed to say probably not i gotta say man like uh the the thing about mark andrew fleur is he's gonna leave a great legacy within the league but the legacy in pittsburgh is something really special he's got a really unbelievable relationship with those fans yeah he won three cups yeah but more than only one i know come on guys i'm trying to set you up for a topic here right here the starting goaltender right oh how dare you jesse yes you know you're right yeah yeah so i don't know he

was the legacy beacon of hope shut up in a terrible era for the penguins or they almost lost the team it was sold and it was unsold and he was the first first overall pick and then it was malcolm at two and then i think it was crosby at one yeah if you want a retrospective on mark andre flurry's career the best person you can listen to is mark andre flurry who was a guest on agent provocateur with alan walsh and adam wilde i encourage you to go look up that episode there's a great story on that one about mario lemieux having uh mark andre flurry stay at his house and try and sneak this uh contract by alan by keeping uh flurry hostage at his home it is a fantastic episode and like flurry having what is going to be a hall of fame career at the end of

it is actually wild to me as someone who remembers the beginning of his career as basically a how-to guide of how to ruin a prospect like the the just letting him get shelled every night um they made him a healthy scratch a bunch of times because he got a signing bonus if he played or a performance bonus if he played a certain amount of games and all these penguins fans were like You have to play him, man. Like, the other guys we have are unusable. I can't even remember who it was. And he came out of all that, won a cup, arguably won a couple others, according to Jesse.

He did win a couple others. He did win a couple others. He won a couple others. Gosh darn it. I didn't say he didn't win them. He's one of the, I think that's what he did. And he's like one of the all-time leaders in wins and shutouts and everything. Alan's going to kick your ass.

just one of the one of the guys who won games i hope i hope john heinz changes his mind or he's just faking out the media and making it making a shit storm you cannot start he's really gonna start that's what he's saying he's saying philip gustin who's first off at practice it's a so it's a back-to-back for the wild apparently um like do we know for sure flurry's even retiring we don't like maybe it's not a big deal because he's just not going to retire no it says it says here mark andre flurry starting tonight yes but john heinz said this morning at a press conference that philip gustafson will be playing and they're playing the bruins tomorrow and mark andre flurry is playing in that game

nah what wait from a strategic standpoint i hate that i'd hate it too gust should be playing the bruins no you know what i'm on adam's side no no i'm telling you this is what he said Wow. What? Why? How is it sinking in five minutes later? I just told you. We don't believe you.

No, like we heard you. Liar. It's just why? Why? Why? Wow. That sucks. It does suck.

That sucks. I know what John Hein said, but let's see what Yahoo Sports has to say. I'm going to look at my... I'm going to... No. Oh, no. I dropped Gus earlier this season. He was terrible.

It just doesn't make sense because both guys got to start both games. Phillip Gustafson is a confirmed starter. Yeah. Oh, dear. Nah. I think that Penguins fans need to do the right thing and boo John Hines. You know what? Now it's real.

You got to boo John Hines. Now Yahoo says it's real. Yeah. Now it's real. All right. Wow. Are we doing a press conference or are we wrapping here? Let's do it.

All right. Let's do it. Two in five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcfwalk.ca.

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you were running just staring at it you're just trying to stare down john heinz yeah it's real it's real good for the audio listen yeah i think so like i think they do a great job uh laughing at that joke that's only for the camera well you know how you defeat john heinz you destroy all those horcruxes way oh all right let's this is from zed ttz on discord hi from finland adam thought martin adam thought martin jones was finnish i wonder if the mix-up could be with ex-nhl goalie christopher gibson who was in the leaf system at some point very english name but born and raised in population ten thousand uh ten thousand people town called car key killer in finland it wasn't okay but i would have made the same mistake i mean

yeah i had no idea where chris is freaking especially car key killer we think uh i i understand car killer car killer car killer i i love the delivery listen i knew chris uh as a player i don't not look at where he was from i don't think you messed up chris gibson and martin jones no i just assumed martin jones was was finished for some reason and not finished finish for anybody that missed the episode anyway keep going this is from stink face mc poop lightning let's go that's a great what is the number of owls in any given day you would have to see before you started thinking it was weird

that is a good question great question honestly one no like okay okay my real answer is two but if i saw one i'd be like holy shit that's an owl but you

wouldn't be like oh adam planted these owls you know do people do that no but like in this scenario something weird is like messing with you like adam's messing with you but how many would you have to see before you're like wait a second somebody's fucking with me okay three because one like i'm trying to think of the amount of times i've seen an owl in my entire life like in the wild then two i'd be like well holy shit a third one i'd be like there are wizards about

that's the conclusion i would come to i can't even say i've seen an owl in the wild they are so big they're big they're so big they are big i've seen them at the zoo uh and i've seen them like you know the i think we had like a guy with an owl come to our school once or something i believe you know that like they used to have like they'd have like a like a you know it's a great don't do drugs here's an owl yeah yeah basically yeah um hey guys yeah here's jeremiah the no drugs owl we're gonna do a break dance yeah so i've seen i i've seen them in like captivity i've never seen an owl in a while so i'm thinking like three three three or four i'd be like what's going on today can i just all of a sudden see every owl everywhere

you know like a special ability you know what i mean yeah no that's a good question i like it the thing about owls is they see you yeah they got great eyesight are also are owls not nocturnal they are nocturnal so it's got to be like let's see and one is special oh yeah no i saw one in the day once i think on my way to the zoo and i went because they're fucking huge and i wasn't expecting to see it now just if i ever see an owl i would be like is somebody fucking with me There's one on TikTok, an owl that's being, I think it's a rescue owl being raised by somebody and they like to spray it with a mist water

and then the owl spreads out its wings and loves it. It just walks around like this. So I can spend, I will go through that account and just watch the owl getting sprayed by water and it loves it, loves an owl bath. There's so many- Weird ass TikTok things. Weirdly pleasing TikTok.

And that was one of them, it's great. The dude who grooms the lobsters. Yes. Or groom, I don't know. and he pulls the particles off them yeah the claw spa there's a dude in yorkshire who just looks for fossils i'm never gonna not watch him get the exact same fossil every time yeah i love it now maybe i need to fall in love with an owl keeper jesse uh one thing that happened last episode that i thought was really wrong that you guys did to uh the people of beautiful long island

as you said uh in long island which is it's in long island it is so far incorrect in long island it is on long island and we got mr mike on our discord to reply what'd he say mr mike said love you guys too long didn't read love you guys but why do you guys gotta disrespect us long islanders there's a reason why we say we live on long island long island is an island not an incorporated community like a city town or state if you live on an island you live on an island not in an island now we all live on an island now if the whole of long island was its own state one day then maybe then it would make sense like manhattan in nyc people say they live in manhattan because its own borough in nyc although it is an island so if you want to sound smarter to us and invite more

of us to your show from long island it's on long island not in mike see see i think it's gonna be in i was gonna say we don't need you as a clever little jab but i actually am not gonna be enough of a pants shitting baby to say that no steven what so yeah they've been good to us i know so i'll say on long island yeah you said something wrong somebody politely corrected you and i think you should say thank you now can you change what you're saying i think it's important is that is that difficult i think it's important to point out that i know i was wrong and was doing it to be a dick can you say in rhode island because rhode island is the state where you know providence is the capital city and rhode island is the state i don't know where do australia why didn't i don't

know enough about anything come on guys so you could live in rhode island which isn't technically an island i don't think that is material to this conversation i'm excited i'm excited to get on a plane and go visit um my wife's relatives on britain like you know you're not the only island right like you're not the only one stop it my grandma grew up on guernsey yeah is guernsey an island yes sure is okay and she grew up on it is it a city nazi occupied british territories that is correct okay it's uh it's part of england i think part of britain all right now you know man i think now i don't think we were talking about any of those other places i think we were talking about one specific place and mike very politely corrected thank you what you were saying they're

being difficult it's definitely not you guys being difficult i'll just no i'll call you the i'll say the thing that makes you feel neat on long island adam i i will also say on long island there we go and i think you i do appreciate you reaching out and not saying fuck you i'm going to burn down your house leaf fans uh which is normally how uh people have their fan bases or have another cheeseburger you fat fuck what steve that was one instagram comment it's no it's so many of them oh wow who's telling you to eat cheese oh man people are telling me to eat cheeseburgers and i'm like they're delicious jesse see here's here's what you do correctly that that steve did not this weekend you don't read the instagram comments no right you don't

read them don't read them nothing not gonna go well for steve listen listen it's all fair and good with people with eight followers and lockdown accounts to call other people's bodies out no i'm fat and sad but if you're fat and sad on long island damn well now i'm no now i gotta be like one of the normies and i'm just fat

and sad in ajax because it's not a neat island do we say on north america i mean you should because it's really i mean if you look at the continents they are kind of just a big island that's what steve's led this conversation with that it was a very good point i live on i had a gummy strategically half an hour ago is earth just an island it is surrounded by space man it's a rock yeah floating through space yeah

planets are just a space island why don't we wrap it up waiting to hurl itself into the sun why don't we just call it let's call it hey i think you look beautiful i think you're beautiful You're a beautiful man. I know I'm beautiful. Jesse, tell him he's beautiful. You are extremely hot. Ooh. And a floorball champion.

Yeah, that's new. Not wrong. S-T-E-P. The Steve Dangle Podcast. Follow the guys on Twitter at Steve underscore Dangle at Adam W-Y-L-D-E and at Jesse Blake. Connection complete.

Two in five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcfwalk.ca.